So Maher hopped from her stroller, nailed every move, and then snagged her pacifier and sat back down.

"Even back then, you could just tell that she was special," Bartoletti recalls.

Maher, a 19-year-old from Plantation, gets to again show how special she is Wednesday night. She's in the final 20 of the Fox reality competition "So You Think You Can Dance."

"I can't even believe it," she says. "I've watched this show since Season One, and to be told I'm in the top 20 is a dream come true."

This isn't her first time on stage. She's danced in two movies, "Rock of Ages" and "Step Up Revolution" (to be released July 27), and in countless troupes and local shows.

Maher is more than a dancer, however. She graduated from South Plantation High in 2011 as the salutatorian, while participating in the National Honor Society and cheerleading. She has been taking courses online at the University of Central Florida, majoring in public affairs.

"I would like to be involved in dance all my life, but it's so physically demanding that I need to have a backup plan," she says. That plan includes becoming a lawyer or a broadcaster.

That makes her parents, who have deep Broward roots, proud. Her mother, Marla, teaches fifth grade at Fox Trail Elementary in Davie. Her father, Brian, is a retired Hollywood police lieutenant.

Brian Maher, who grew up in a family of boys, says he has learned the physicality it takes to be a good dancer.

"They say it's not a sport, but these kids really bust their chops," he says. "Coming from a world of sports, I've developed an appreciation for it."

Bartoletti's daughter, Julie, taught Maher at Dance FX as she progressed, which meant six to seven days a week in the studio, for three to four hours a day.

"The only way to describe it is she has that 'X' factor. It's something that couldn't be taught," Julie Bartoletti says. "There wasn't a doubt in my mind that she'd make the show."

Bartoletti says it wasn't just talent that got Maher noticed, but her personality and a willingness to learn.

"She has no ego. She's always striving to be better than what she was yesterday," Bartoletti says. "You don't get an opportunity to teach people like this very often."